Solid-state laser systems have a solid-state laser gain medium that converts energy from an optical pump source into a coherent beam. The pump source can be one of many available energy-producing systems such as flash lamps or semiconductor laser diodes. The energy produced by the pump source is incident upon the laser medium and absorbed by the laser medium.
The absorbed energy in the laser medium causes certain atoms in the laser medium to be excited into a higher energy state. Once at this higher state, these atoms release optical energy by amplifying light which is passed through it. The optical amplifier can be placed into an oscillating state by the use of optical feedback. The laser oscillator includes at least two reflective surfaces located on either side of the laser medium in order to provide this feedback. The laser oscillator may be designed to continuously release a laser beam from the system. Alternatively, the oscillator can be designed such that when the energy stored in the laser medium reaches a predetermined level, it is released from the system as a high-power, short-duration pulsed laser beam.
In many systems, the laser medium is Neodymium-doped, Yttrium-Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG). A laser medium made from Nd:YAG absorbs optical energy most readily when the energy is at a wavelength of approximately 808 nm. Thus, the source to pump the Nd:YAG laser medium should be emitting light energy at approximately 808 nm. Gallium arsenide semiconductor laser diodes may be manufactured with dopants (e.g., aluminum) that will cause the emitted light to be in a variety of wavelengths, including 808 nm. Thus, the semiconductor laser diodes, which are lasers by themselves, act as the pump source for the laser medium.
Many laser systems emit energy in a pulsed mode. To accomplish this function, a laser system may include a Q-switch that is made of a material having rapidly alterable optical properties that result in changing the overall loss of the oscillator in which it is placed. One such device is the Acousto-Optic (AO) Q-switch. This Q-switch is activated between an “opened” state and a “closed” state by a radio frequency (RF) signal, which typically operates in the range of 27 MHz to 80 MHz. When the RF signal is applied, a loss is induced in a properly aligned optical beam which passes through the Q-switch by diffracting the light off an acoustic wave inside the Q-switch material, resulting in the “closed” state. Any energy that oscillates within a laser oscillator encounters the loss produced by the Q-switch, which, if it is larger than the gain through the laser medium, prevents it from building to appreciable levels. Hence, there is no laser output power from the system when the RF signal is applied to the Q-switch. When the RF input signal is removed from the Q-switch (i.e., the “opened” state), the beam passes through the laser medium and the gain in the system overcomes the residual loss of the laser oscillator, resulting in a pulse of energy being emitted from the laser system. Furthermore, the amount of loss induced in the laser oscillator by an AO Q-switch is largely independent of polarization state, making this device one of the few Q-switches that are effective in an unpolarized laser typical of Nd:YAG systems.
As an example, the Q-switch can cause the laser system to produce consistent pulses of energy at a range of repetition frequencies from 1 Hz to 50 kHz. This is accomplished by quickly switching between the “opened” state and the “closed” state at this frequency. The emitted energy produced from a solid-state laser system is generally coherent and exits the system in a predefined area. Thus, the optical power produced can be readily focused by the use of other optical components such as lenses. The resultant emitted energy can be used for a variety of industrial, medical, and scientific purposes such as cutting material, melting materials, ablating materials or vaporizing materials.
However, the opening of the acousto-optic Q-switch is relatively slow (on the order of 200 ns per mm of beam width) as the ultrasonic wave must propagate from one edge of the laser beam to the other and thus the efficient pulsing of the beam is limited to relatively low gain oscillators that require more than this time for the pulse to build to full intensity. High gain oscillators that have shorter build-up times can only be Q-switched by Electro-Optic (EO) devices which open in only about 20 ns. The EO device, however, is only effective in polarized lasers. While Nd:YAG can be polarized by inserting an appropriate optical device, this often results in unacceptably high losses and poor efficiency.
There is thus a need for a laser pulse oscillator that allows for the rapid loss-switching of an unpolarized beam.